Odd One Out
by osnapitzsofia
Summary: Chrissy and Mirabel Jackson are just average girls, that is, at least, until they find out they are demigods. But they aren't true demigods; both their parents are demigods, and most of the other kids at camp avoid them. Chrissy is desperate to prove herself, while Mirabel is battling against her new enemy, who is technically their aunt.
1. Chapter 1

**My first story ever! Yay! Please review...**

**THE FIRST TIME I WROTE THIS CHAPTER, CHRISSY HAD TWO YOUNGER SIBLINGS NAMED SARAH AND RYAN. They do not exist anymore.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy or Annabeth or anyone else in this story, except Chrissy and Mirabel**

* * *

So, yeah. I'm being forced to tell you guys a story. It's not that interesting though, unless you're the kind of person who loves stories about people who are always about to die. Oh well.

My name is Chrissy Jackson, by the way. My name is short for Chrysanthemum. Yes, it is very long and very... _original_. My parents didn't want to name me after anyone, although my middle name is Sally, after my grandmother. My twin sister's name is Mirabel, so it's cool because we both have really weird names. Then I don't feel like I stand out too much. And we both have nicknames; Mira and Chrissy. Although Mirabel hated being called Mira.

I guess this story starts on our thirteenth birthday.

* * *

We were going to visit my grandparents on my dad's side. My grandparents on my mom's side live in California, so we don't really get to see them very often, only for holidays and such. It was drizzling outside, but it was raining harder earlier, and there was a long puddle right under the curb. I stood in the puddle, the water seeping into my Converse and socks. I loved rain.

"Chrissy! Get out of the puddle!" My mom scolded. "You are going to get the car and your grandparent's house soaked! Go inside and change your shoes. Also tell Dad to hurry up."

"Chrissy, can you get my book too?" asked Mirabel, who was standing on the sidewalk. "I left it in our room."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine." I ran inside our apartment building. So before I get to the part where I change my shoes and a bunch of other boring old things, I'd just like to clarify a few things up and give a little background details. We lived in a big apartment, it was two floors high, but it wasn't big that we all got our own rooms. Mirabel and I shared a room, but I thought it was horrible. Mirabel was a neat freak. My parents names are Percy and Annabeth Jackson, and my dad is a marine biologist and my mom is an architect. The grandparents I was going to visit for my birthday lived on the Upper East Side, and my grandfather is actually my dad's step-dad. I thought his real dad died. My mom has a step-mom and I thought her real mom died, too. I didn't really know.

I have a few cousins, from my father's real dad's side. Most of them live in New York, but a few live in San Francisco, so I only see them if they come here to visit. Also, they are all technically second cousins, since neither of my parents have siblings. My family is kind of strange, but not really. It's pretty weird because both of my parents had dyslexia and ADHD, so Mirabel and I inherited it. Is that even possible? I love to read though. Oh, and then there's that minor detail about the Mirabel and I. We look _nothing_ alike. I have black hair and gray eyes, and she has blonde hair and green eyes.

Anyways, let's get back to the story.

I rode upstairs in the elevator. It was empty, as our apartment building isn't very big, so there aren't many people. _I wish my shoes were dry,_ I thought. _They are my favorite shoes. _I got out of the elevator and walked down the hallway to our apartment. I knocked on the door, and Dad opened it.

"What do you want?" he asked. "I was just coming downstairs."

I walked past him, to get Mirabel's book and change my shoes. "Mom says you have to hurry up."

He smiled. "Of course she said that." Dad had to pack a basket full of food to bring to my grandparent's. Grandma Sally can't cook _everything_, but we knew she would probably try if we let her. "Why did you come up here?"

"I was standing in a puddle and now my shoes are all wet, so Mom made me came upstairs to change my shoes and socks," I explained.

Dad looked at my shoes, then back at my face, and then at my shoes again. "Are you sure you actually got your shoes wet?" Well, that confused me. I looked down, and my shoes were perfectly dry. How? There wasn't even a trail of water coming into the house. I guess I should have realized that they didn't squeak when I walked. But I knew my shoes were sopping wet when I got on the elevator.

"Yes, I'm sure," I said after a moment.

"Chrissy, why don't you take the basket downstairs? Send your mom up here too," he said. I could see the worry that he tried to hide in his eyes. I agreed and grabbed Mirabel's book, and then took the elevator back downstairs.

I could prove my shoes were wet; the elevator floor had a small puddle.

* * *

So after we got downstairs, I gave the book to Mirabel and Mom put the basket in the trunk. "Mom, you have to go upstairs. Dad needs you or something," I told her.

"Okay, get in the car." She went inside. Mirabel looked at me through the window, and she rolled it down.

"Chrissy!" she exclaimed. "Go follow her! Go tell us what they're talking about!" I nodded. We have devious minds.

* * *

Mom took the elevator, so I sprinted up the stairs. We only lived on the twentieth floor. I really hope you noticed the sarcasm in the last sentence, because, trust me, I hate sprinting. I made sure to wait in the stairwell, until I was sure Mom was in our apartment. I heard the door shut, so I crept out of the stairwell, past the yellow-gold walls, and to the door of the apartment. I pressed my ear to the door. I knew my parents would be talking in the living room, and the living room is the main room. My dad paces around the living room when he's stressed out.

"Chrissy said you needed me," Mom said.

"Her shoes. They were wet, right?" he asked

"Of course they were," Mom told him. "She wouldn't have come up here if they weren't."

"When she got into the apartment, they were totally dry. She knew her shoes were wet."

"Oh no." I heard my mom pace around the room. "Not again. Not again..."

"Annabeth, we're going to have to tell the girls eventually."

"Have you noticed anything with Mirabel lately, other than that one time at the aquarium?"

"Yes, I haven't been able to tell you yet. They keep interrupting us whenever I was going to tell you. Mirabel made the pipes explode at the grocery store. I was so lucky, they didn't accuse us for it at all."

What was he talking about, you ask? Well dear reader, at the time, I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. And it wouldn't be right to spoil the story for you.

"Let's go now," Mom said. I sprinted away to the elevator and got inside as fast as I could. By the time I got in, the apartment door hadn't even opened yet.

See my escape plan was simple. I would get in the elevator and go downstairs, then my parents would be forced to wait for it to come back up. Meanwhile, I could get back to the car safely without getting busted.

As soon as I got in the car, Mirabel bombarded me with questions. I glared at her. "They're coming any minute, so I'll tell you later." Soon my parents got in the car and we were off to my grandparent's house.


	2. Chapter 2

**GUYS! I got 54 views on Chapter 1! IN ONE DAY! I don't actually think that is a lot, but I'm really happy!**

**Please review! reviews=happiness=inspiration=new chapter I already have 1 review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the PJO/HOO characters, but I wish I did... *sob***

* * *

**{MIRABEL'S POV}**

We had a great time at Grandma Sally's house. She made blue cookies for us and we had dinner and stuff. I didn't really understand the whole blue food thing, but oh well. Afterward, at home, Chrissy told me what Mom and Dad said.

"They were all freaked out, 'cause apparently my shoes magically dried or something. And Dad said something about you made the pipes at the grocery store explode."

"I didn't do that," I defended myself. "I was standing like two feet from the wall. But the pipes made a weird noise and they exploded, and a hole formed in the wall. Then we left. They said it was just a pipe malfunction."

"Well, I don't know," said Chrissy. "That's what Dad said."

"Girls!" Mom called from the kitchen. "Come here!" We went downstairs to the kitchen. The walls in it were green, yellow-green. I picked out that color years ago when we first moved into the apartment. We were about eight. Chrissy and my mom hated it.

'What do you need?" I asked.

Mom was sitting at the kitchen table, working on another of her blueprints. "Can you two go over to Mrs. Benedict's and ask her for some tape? We ran out and I need it."

We both groaned. Mrs. Benedict was our next-door neighbor, and she was this cranky old woman. "Do we have to?" Chrissy complained. "Why can't Dad go?"

Mom shook her head. "He went to the grocery store. I don't know how you guys go through all that chocolate milk so fast."

"Fine," we said in unison.

* * *

"Chrissy, ring the doorbell," I whispered.

"No, you do it."

"No, you!"

"Oh, fine." She pressed the button. "You have to talk."

A few seconds later, Mrs. Benedict came to the door. "Hello girls!"

"Hi," I said, with a fake smile. I could get people to like me, whereas Chrissy was stubborn and really didn't care. "Our mom sent us over here to ask if you have any tape she can borrow."

"Oh, sure." She went inside and came back with a roll of masking tape. "Will this do?"

"Yes, Mom uses that kind of tape usually. Thank you!"

"You're welcome, good-bye."

"Bye!" Chrissy looked at me weird as we walked away.

"What?" I asked.

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"You were so _nice._ And neither of us like her, yet you were unnaturally nice."

"I just have hidden talents."

* * *

Before lunchtime the next day, which was Sunday, we were planning how to get our parents to explain how Chrissy's shoes magically dried. We were curious and stuff, but we knew Mom and Dad would never tell us if we just asked. But I wanted to try.

"We should just ask first! Then if they won't tell us, we can make a plan and stuff," I argued.

"No! Mirabel, they're never gonna tell us!"

"It's worth a shot," I persisted.

Chrissy rolled her eyes. "Fine. You have to do the talking again, though."

We walked into the hall and down the stairs. I could hear Mom and Dad talking. See, Chrissy and I learned many things by eavesdropping on my parents. We learned we were getting a surprise birthday party when we were eleven, and we found out what we were going to get for Christmas when we were twelve. We actually didn't really celebrate Christmas, but we still had a party with our family and got presents and stuff.

"Annabeth, they have to know. We can't keep it a secret forever. They're old enough to remember things like what happened yesterday," my dad said. Keep what a secret?

"But they've been fine _not_ knowing. Maybe next year," Mom argued back.

"They're thirteen. It's technically time for claiming at thirteen. You just hate to admit I'm right."

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain." I really, truly had no clue my parents had weird nicknames for each other, so don't ask. "Maybe."

"Tomorrow we're having the party for them. We can tell them tomorrow when everyone is here. Maybe it will help." Well, the party was for us. All my cousins were coming to our house. But what did they want to tell us?

Chrissy looked at me. I shrugged. I heard Mom sigh. "Fine. Everyone else knows. Is Thalia coming?" I was pretty sure that was my cousin, but I had only met her once or twice because she was always traveling or something like that.

"I don't think so. Last time I heard from her, they were in Washington. Like Washington state, not D.C.," answered Dad.

"Anyway," my mom changed the subject. "What do you want for lunch?"

* * *

"Chrissy!" I shouted. "Mom says to go clean your half of our room!" It was time to prepare for the next day's party.

"Okay!" she shouted back.

"Mirabel," Mom said. "Don't shout like that." A timer went off downstairs. "Go get the cake out of the oven."

"Okay." Mom was baking a cake for the party. It was blue, of course.

I walked downstairs, to the kitchen. My dad was in there, trying to hang up streamers, while standing on a chair. He had one end taped to the wall and the other side wouldn't stick.

I snorted. "Do you need help?"

Dad turned around. "Of course not. It's just crepe paper streamers."

I put on the oven mitt and took both layers of the cake out. Mom would frost it later. The last time I tried to do that was Dad's birthday a few years before. The cake completely broke in half.

A sharp _thump_ like a gunshot came from behind me. The chair Dad was standing on was tipped over, and he was sitting on the ground. I laughed.

Mom ran into the kitchen, took one look at Dad and doubled over with laughter.

"Hey! It's harder than it looks!"

My mom put the chair back to normal. "The great Percy Jackson, finally defeated by flimsy crepe paper."

Dad rolled his eyes. "You try it then."

"No, thank you," Mom said over her shoulder, as she walked out of the kitchen.

Our family is not the most mature family in the world...


	3. AN

**A/N**

**Yes, this chapter is just an author's note! But I'm stuck!**

**I NEED TO NAME ALL THE OTHER DEMIGODS' KIDS!**

**Please help me... I have no talent at all at naming people. I'm writing my own original story and I had to name the main character's best friend Jack because I don't have any ideas, and I kinda wanted a more original name...**

**Anyways, please help me and put suggestions in the reviews!**

**Here is what they're all having:**

**Jason and Piper: One son and one daughter, both have Piper's eyes, the girl has Jason's hair, and the boy has Piper's. Boy is twelve, girl is six**

**Hazel and Frank: A little toddler boy, age four. I haven't decided what he looks like yet, though.**

**Um... Do they have anymore cousins?**

**Oh, yes Leo and Nico... I can do them on my own...**

**Seriously, I'd really appreciate if you would help me! And if you do suggest a name, can you review my story. I need some constructive criticism here!**

**~Sofia**


	4. Chapter 3

**Hi! I was going to post on Tuesday, but I had skating practice, and on Wednesday, I was absorbed in the House of Hades!**

**SPOILERS START HERE**

**I was going to put Nico in this chapter, and he would have had a daughter named Bianca, and a wife that died. (Because I couldn't think of a name.) And when I was reading the part in HoH when he and Jason had to talk to Cupid, I was literally crying. Poor, poor Nico di Angelo. (If anyone who didn't read the book is actually reading this part, I'd just like to tell you, he did NOT die.) And I didn't make Leo get married or anything because of all that Caleo stuff. (So cute! I hated Calypso with Percy. When I read BotL for the first time, I threw the book against the wall.**

**SPOILERS END HERE**

**Anyways, I'm doing this from my phone, so please feel free to review telling me how horrible my grammar was.**

* * *

{CHRISSY'S POV}

The blue hairbrush slid through my dark hair, causing me to wince. It wasn't my fault my hair got so knotty.

People were going to arrive soon. Mom and Dad were doing all that last minute cleaning, while Mirabel was pacing by the front door, waiting for the doorbell to ring.

I was wearing my normal clothes; a button-down shirt and bright green jeans. I adored colored denim. I had pink, black, purple, orange, white... Name a color and I own it.

I brushed my hair some more, for good measure, and blew my side bangs out of my face. I walked out of the bathroom, just as the doorbell finally rang.

Mirabel answered it right away, and I sprinted the rest of the way there. It was my cousins, James and Alexis, and their parents Piper and Jason. Lames was twelve and Alexis was six. Their parents were my parents' cousins, so they were my second cousins.

Then we began the first round of greetings. We didn't get to see them really often, because they lived half the time in New York, and half the time in California. I didn't really understand why, because it's not like their parents are divorced or anything like that. In my head, I just decided it was Piper's and Jason's jobs.

I didn't call them Aunt Piper and Uncle Jason. They weren't my aunt and uncle.

Alexis, James, Mirabel and I went up to our room.

"Your room is pink!" Alexis exclaimed. "Mine is too!" Alexis had just finished kindergarten a few weeks before, just as Mirabel and I had just finished seventh grade.

James rolled his eyes. "No one cares, Alexis." Siblings can be so loving. Trust me, I know. (Hint, hint: Mirabel.)

We sat in the Fun corner of our room. Okay, I guess the time has come to explain that.

When we were ten, Mirabel and I went through a phase where we were neat-freaks. (Of course, Mirabel is still a little OCD.) We had to have our room completely organized. So Mom gave us a roll of bright blue duct tape and we "organized." We made sections all across the carpet, and labeled them off.

We had the Bed corner, where our bed was. It was a bunk bed and I slept on the bottom. Then we had the Clothing corner, where there was our closet and a full length mirror. And we had the Fun corner, where we kept some beanbags, books, board games and other stuff. Then we had the Homework corner, where we had a desk.

Our room was divided into quarters. It wasn't that big, but we had had to get Dad and Mom to rearrange the furniture to fit in the corners. We replaced the duct tape every so often, to a different color.

James and Alexis were used to our room. "What do you want to do?" I asked, just as the doorbell rang again.

All four of us ran back downstairs, and Mom had already let more of our cousins inside. It was Hazel and her husband Frank. They had one son, Felix, who was three, but they had another baby on the way. Hazel was five months pregnant, and I was pretty sure they were having a girl.

Felix was a really hyper boy. He came right up to us and gave us a big hug. "Hi, Cwissy! Hi, Meerabel!" He still had a lisp. I laughed. We never got to see him much, because he lived in California.

The door opened again, and this time it was my Aunt Rachel (who wasn't really my aunt) and my parents' other cousin, Leo. Aunt Rachel wasn't married and she didn't have kids.

Aunt Rachel was awesome. Since she never got married or had kids, I think she seriously tried to spoil Mirabel and me, but my parents wouldn't let her.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed. "You guys are so grown up now! You're teenagers!"

Eventually, Grandma Sally and Grandpa Paul came, even though we saw them the day before. But too bad.

There were plenty of hellos, and finally everyone got settled down, and we had... Well, it wasn't lunch and it wasn't dinner. It was in between.

The adults ate in the dining room, while we ate in the kitchen. It was me, Mirabel, Felix, James, and Alexis.

"What do you want to do after we're done eating?" Mirabel asked.

"I don't know," we all replied. There wasn't much we could do, but we could always get our parents to bring us to the park.

"What-" Alexis started, and got cut off by the sound of the front door being knocked down.

We all stood up and looked through the kitchen window thingy. It was this huge, black dog. It couldn't fit through the door, it was so big. Only it's head was inside the apartment.

Mirabel looked half confused and half afraid, and I guess that was me, too. Felix couldn't actually see, because he was too short and no one wanted to lift him up. James and Alexis were staring at the dog.

"Cool!" James exclaimed. "I've never seen one of those before!"

The parents all came out of the dining room.

Mom looked at us and let out a heavy sigh. "I guess the time has come to tell you." Behind her, the dog disintegrated in smelly yellow dust. Did my dad have a sword? I noticed they all had weapons of some sort.

What just happened?

* * *

We sat on the living room floor, and the parents sat on the couch and chairs. My parents were standing though.

"Chrissy, Mirabel, you're thirteen now and we think it's finally time to explain things to you," Dad started. "Your cousins already know this, and we're really sorry we didn't tell you before. And don't be surprised or anything."

Mom looked at us. "Well... You know, I'm just going to get straight to point. The Greek gods are real."

Mirabel and I exchanged glances. "Really?" Mirabel asked.

Everyone in the room nodded their heads. "The big dog you just saw was a monster, a hellhound," Mom explained. "Monsters are attracted to demigods."

"What's that?" I asked, even those I perfectly well knew the answer. My parents had many, many books on the Greek myths.

And then I realized it before Dad even said it. "All of us," he paused and gestured to all the parents, "are demigods."

"So we're descended from two demigods?" asked Mirabel. She spent hours in my parents' office and had read every book in there multiple times.

Mom nodded. "I'm a daughter of Athena and your father is a son of Poseidon."

"My dad is Hephaestus!" exclaimed Leo, and his fingers on his right hand burst into flames. I backed away a little. I didn't want the whole building starting on fire.

The conversation about this went on the whole rest of the party. I learned a lot, I guess. There are monsters, Mount Olympus is above the Empire State Building, there is this thing called the Mist, and lot more. The whole Greek and Roman thing gave me a headache, though.

My parents and their friends told all of us the story of their quests, which apparently was very dangerous, but they saved the world twice. A lot of demigods didn't get to do that.

But they told me the story of both the Second Titan War and the Second Giant War. It was horrible. So many people died. Both my parents suffered from terrible injuries, and faced death many times.

After everyone left, my parents, Mirabel, and I were cleaning up in the kitchen. "I can't believe it," Mirabel said out loud, after an awkward moment of silence.

Mom looked at us, wistfully. "I didn't want to tell you. The life of a demigod is dangerous." She and Dad looked at each other sadly, and I knew they both had suffered. I could tell they left out the scarier parts.

They said they had been to Tartarus and back, and from those books in the office, I knew that was the worst they had ever gone through. They only explained it in vague detail.

When they told the story of the first war, against the Titan Kronos, it was mostly Mom, Dad, and Aunt Rachel talking. None of the others came in until the second war against the evil Mother Earth, Gaea.

Multiple times throughout both, someone looked like they were about to cry.

At the time, I didn't really understand who dangerous it was going to be, even if I wasn't a real demigod.

My parents decided to send us to their camp, Camp Half-Blood, the next week. I was glad because James and Alexis would be there. Felix wouldn't be, because both his parents were descended from Roman gods, so he lived at the Roman camp.

I was only just realizing my life was changing majorly.

* * *

**Haha, can anyone find the reference I put in? It's from one of the PJO books!**

**~Sofia**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hmm... No one found the reference in the last chapter... It was from BotL, specially from the Percy quote, "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush." My reference said, "The ****_blue hairbrush_**** slid through my dark hair..." I didn't want to put plastic or else it would be too obvious... It was in the very beginning of the chapter so yeah.**

**And I'd just like to tell you how weird I am. I'm writing this author's note before I even wrote the chapter...**

**Sorry this took forever! Go read my new story, "Demigods and the Sorcerer's Stone!" It's a Harry Potter/Percy Jackson crossover. A bit cliche, but I really like it.**

**~Sofia**

**Disclaimer: I am not a boy. Therefore, I am not Rick Riordan.**

* * *

{MIRABEL'S POV}

The boring forest roads were quiet. The car was quieter. We drove to my parents' camp in silence, and I thought it was pretty weird.

At first, when we were still in Manhattan, my parents had a long conversation about which cabin we would stay in. They decided we would switch cabin every week, because every day was too often and they didn't want to offend Athena or Poseidon. We were going to stay in the Athena cabin first because they wanted us to stay with other kids. But from the way they talked, I got the feeling there was one other kid that's a child of Poseidon.

Finally, my dad, who was driving, stopped the car in front of a big hill with a pine tree on it. I couldn't see behind the hill, and I wondered what the camp looked like.

You know what didn't make sense to me? Why did demigods go to a summer camp? Why didn't they just go to a school for demigods? Like Hogwarts in Harry Potter. (Yes, I read those books. Chrissy doesn't read.) A school would make more sense because the demigods would be safe from monsters more time out of the year.

Does Hogwarts cost money? Actually, don't answer that. It's my ADHD talking.

As we got out of the car, Mom came up to Chrissy and I. She looked serious. "I just want you to know," she started, "if certain people are mean to you, just people ignore them. Especially your father's half-sister..."

"Half-sister?" Chrissy asked.

I tilted my head. "That makes her our aunt."

Mom nodded. "You'll meet her. I have many more half-siblings than Dad, by the way."

•*•*•*•*•

The Big House smelled horrible. Like not horrible-horrible, but paint-horrible. Some campers were painting it yellow and I cannot stand the smell of paint. The parts of the house that weren't yellow were a faded blue.

The inside didn't smell as bad, but it was still decorated oddly. Different kinds of masks covered the walls, along with grapevines that poked through the masks and covered everything. Above a fireplace was a stuffed leopard, and arcade games beeped in the corner.

The stuffed leopard moved and Chrissy jumped next to me. Dad laughed at the leopard. "Don't mind Seymour."

But the oddest part of the room was Chiron. He was a centaur. He seemed nice though. A girl with light brown hair who looked about my age stood next to him.

"Welcome," he said and he tossed what looked like meat to Seymour the stuffed leopard. "Don't mind the oddness of this room. Anyways, this is Emma, a daughter of Aphrodite, and she's going to show you two around camp, right now, before lunch begins." He nodded for us to leave. "Percy, Annabeth, can you stay here?"

Chrissy and I followed Emma outside. "I'm Emma! But you already know that. Here's the Big House. They're repainting it because apparently it didn't look nice enough. My siblings were the ones that suggested it..."

"Siblings?" Chrissy asked. Two older kids were standing next to a few paint buckets, which she tripped over. Luckily, they were shut.

Emma seemed nice. I noticed she talked a lot. Her light brown hair was in a bob, and she had hazel eyes. She wore a simple orange camp shirt and jean shorts, and a pair of muddy sneakers.

Emma sighed. "Yeah, I'm a daughter of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. I'm nothing like my sisters and brothers. They all love makeup and pretty things, except for the boys, of course. The inside of the cabin is pink, and so are the bedsheets, and it's like a Barbie house..."

"That must be horrible," I commented.

Emma nodded. "It is. I thought I was a daughter of Demeter before I was claimed. I love nature and stuff, and then I was a daughter of Aphrodite, which made no sense to me. My dad owns a flower shop though, so it's like nature and beauty."

"How do you get claimed?" I asked.

"Well, most gods just send a holographic symbol over their kid's head. The Aphrodite claiming is horrible. She magically dresses you in a dress with magically done hair and makeup. Most kids think it's great and stuff, but I was so embarrassed. I had to wait for the hair and makeup to wear off, and it took a whole week!"

Chrissy gasped. "Oh my God, that's terrifying."

Emma laughed. "Just so you know, we say 'oh my gods' here. You'll pick up on the demigod talk eventually. And people say Aphrodite is probably the scariest of all the gods. Love can make people do horrible things. And here's the stables. Soon, you'll be able to take riding lessons."

"On real horses?" Chrissy asked. She used to be obsessed with horses when we were in elementary school.

Emma frowned. "Of course not! We ride pegasi here."

Chrissy's eyes opened wider. "Okay, that's even cooler."

•*•*•*•*•

"And this is the Poseidon cabin," Emma said. "I think Katy's in there, if you want to go meet her. We're not technically allowed in other people's cabins, but this is your second cabin..."

"Katy?" I asked. The cabin reminded me of the ocean, which I guess was the whole point.

Emma nodded. "She's your dad's sister. Daughter of Poseidon. Only child of Poseidon since the Big Three oath was broken. Actually, she's the only one we know about so far."

"Is she nice?" Chrissy asked.

Emma laughed a hollow laugh. "I'll let you find that out yourself..."

I took it that it meant that Katy was mean. Oh well. Maybe she just had some bad things happening with her mortal mother.

A girl walked up to the three demigods. She had skin with a greenish tint, her eyes were pointed, and her eyes had a greenish tint too.

"Hi Emma," she said, sounding sullen. "These are the Jackson twins, right?" Emma nodded. "I'm Aspen. A dryad, from an aspen tree."

"A dryad is a tree nymph," I said. "I'm Mirabel."

"I'm Chrissy."

"I know," Aspen said. "It's not a good time to be a dryad though. A lot of trees are getting infected with a tree disease and a lot of trees have died. When your tree dies, you die too! I live in a clearing, and many of the trees along the edges of the clearing are already dead!" She looked like she was about to cry.

Emma patted her shoulder. "It's okay. The Apollo and Athena cabins are trying to find a cure." She turned to us. "The children of Apollo are the camps best healers and the children of Athena are the smartest so Chiron picked them to help dryads."

Aspen looked behind her to the forest. "I have to go now. Bye."

"Bye," I said. She turned to walk away.

"Good luck," Chrissy called after her.

Emma sighed as soon as she was out of hearing range. "I feel so bad for her. I hope she doesn't get sick. If you get the dryad sickness, there is no chance you'll survive. And dryads can't move. They're trees."

"I feel bad for them then," Chrissy decided.

I nodded. "I want to help."


End file.
